“Soiled Lilies” of the Speakeasy?

HBO’s series, Boardwalk Empire, about Atlantic City during Prohibition, was awash in alcohol, in spite of the laws against booze. “Soiled Lilies” along with soused socialites found ways to drink and party the night away. – Photo source, Pinterest

IN CONNECTION with repeal and the effort to do away with the saloon there is a new factor to take into consideration. During these years of the speakeasy, which has been a product of prohibition, the custom of women entering places where liquor has been sold has steadily grown. Originally the habit was the outgrowth of a desire to do something that “wasn't being done,” but as the years went by women found real pleasure in being escorted to this or that place where they could take drink for drink with their companions.

This is one of the problems that will have to be contended with if the speakeasy is to be put out of business. The answer of the moralists and of certain “best people” will be that this practice was confined only to certain night-life creatures of questionable repute. That happens not to be the correct answer. The truth is that women from all walks of life, high and low, became accustomed to this new freedom and availed themselves of it without restraint.

In the old days women never entered saloons, unless they were the “soiled lilies” of the streets or possibly part of a slumming party. They were not wanted there by the men who owned the saloons. But under the new order which came with prohibition, the era of the hip flask, women came to feel just as free as men in regard to liquor. They drank it wherever they could get it. The speakeasy, the night club, obtained a large revenue from women. With a high tax on good liquor the speakeasy with its synthetic gin and corn whisky and its welcome for both men and women is not go- ing to be put out of business as easily as many people thought it would. –Salinas Index, 1933

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